Checkered Past Ridler-Winning 1940 Ford Coupe

If cars have thoughts, Ron Cizek’s ’40 Ford is probably blinking its bezeled headlights in confusion right about now. It’s trying to figure out how a Ridler-winning show car goes from basking in the lights of the Detroit Autorama (Autorama.com) to making laps around a local Friday night car cruise in small-town Nebraska. We’d like to claim all the credit for getting this showpiece off its trailer, but the truth is the car’s builders and owner intended to drive it from day one. It just took them a little longer than they planned to get the car on the road.

2/22The fuel-injected motor is topped by a GMC 4-71 supercharger that feeds out into Fenton headers.

Built by Andy Leach’s CAL Automotive Creations (CalAutoCreations.com) and nicknamed Checkered Past, Ron Cizek’s Ford was started in 2010 after Andy moved back to Bennington, Nebraska. Andy spent five years working for Troy Trepanier at Rad Rides by Troy in Manteno, Illinois, before he decided to move back home. “I learned a lot at Rad Rides, but my family was in Omaha, and I wanted to be closer to them,” Andy says about his decision to move back. He took a job as a welder but found it unsatisfying, so he started doing small custom jobs on the side. “I missed the creativity of building cars,” he says.

When Andy met Ron, who was looking for help restoring his dad’s ’40 Ford (a former dirt track racer’s tow vehicle), Ron immediately recognized Andy’s talents and asked him to take on the build.

Andy worked on the Ford’s body in his home garage for nearly three years, “on weekends and at night,” he says. In 2012, Andy and Ron went to the Detroit Autorama. Ron saw the Great 8 cars and came back to Nebraska to “up the game.” At that point, Andy decided to make the car-building business full time. He hired designer and fabricator Bob Thrash, and they sat down with Ron to figure out how to take the ’40 to the next level.

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Inspired by the Great 8

Ron’s plan for the car was to keep some of the vintage styling cues, which was fine with Andy, who prefers hot rods that maintain some semblance of their original lines. Ron was dead set on having a flathead as the powerplant, but a few months before the car was finished, they found the block they planned to use was cracked.

A local flathead enthusiast named Eric Hansen came to the rescue. Eric has more than 100 Ford and Mercury flatheads, and he’s not even 25 years old. “I don’t know where he got the flathead bug,” Andy says. “When we were putting the engine in the car, we needed some flywheel bolts, and again, it was no problem. Eric had some on his nightstand table. The day we put the motor together, Eric turned to me and said, ‘This is the greatest day of my life.’”

Eric wasn’t the only person to come into the build at the perfect time to save the day. Mere days before the car needed to leave for the Autorama, the engine tuner dropped out. In a panic, the team went online to search for a replacement, and EFI expert Scott Clark offered his services. “They called and said Ron would send his private plane for me,” Scott says, “And I was like, guys, I’m 10 minutes away from Bennington.” Scott ended up missing out on the private plane ride, but he did manage to get the car running. The ability to start and move under its own power is a requirement for Ridler contestants, so without Scott’s work on the Mega Squirt EFI system, Checkered Past would have been out of competition.

13/22Underneath, the stock ’40 rails were braced and boxed to support RideTech coilover shocks and an independent rear suspension with inboard brakes. Every piece of the undercarriage was modified, from the finned plates on the control arms, to the curved rear trailing arms. Torque tubes and bellypans were made to cover joints and other mechanical necessities. “We made a bellypan to cover the gas tank,” says Andy. “There’s no way to make a gas tank look good.”

The engine and tune are impressive, but we suspect what really won over the Autorama judges was the metal fabrication on the car. There’s almost no part on the Ford that hasn’t been cut, chopped, or reshaped. The body is subtle, just a 1-inch section front to back, 3⁄8-inch chop, and reworking of openings and rocker panels to eliminate gaps and fit flush-mounted glass. The hood is a custom-made piece to fit the grille, which itself is a one-off, assembled out of more than 180 individually welded rods, meant to mimic the ’40 Deluxe grille but with a modern angle. The whole car would look stock to someone new to ’40s styling. Andy says the car was too iconic a shape to make extreme changes to its form. “We just gave it a tuck, slimmed it up slightly, took the grandpa out of it.”

14/22The brushed gold wheels -- 18s in front and 20s in the rear -- were inspired by Dow 7–coated Halibrand racing wheels but designed by Andy and his team. BFGoodrich 235/35R18 (front) and 295/45R20 (rear) tires wrap the custom-made wheels built by T.J. Zessin at Atomic Machine and Design. Wilwood calipers and rotors lurk behind the color-keyed mesh and machined housing.

It was on the show floor at the ’13 Autorama where we first met the CAL Automotive Creations team, when Checkered Past claimed not only a spot in the Great 8, but also the top prize of all, the coveted Ridler Award.

A rather dazed Andy Leach took a moment to talk to us about the car and swore that unlike most show-winners, Checkered Past was built to be driven. We figured he was just high on adrenaline and victory, and were sure we wouldn’t ever see the Ford in action. Then we got an invite to come out to the shop and take Checkered Past on its first street journey. We were in the passenger seat before Andy even hung up the phone.

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The Ford’s interior is all smooth saddle leather and suede over hand-formed, dimple-died panels in complementary shades of gold and tan. It’s like sitting inside a Werther’s Original candy. When started, the needles on the vintage-looking Classic Instruments gauges form a perfect V8 logo, and a hidden stereo and control panel emerges from the stock ’40 dashboard with decidedly un-vintage clicks and flashing lights. Under the 4-71 blower, which whines audibly, is a fuel-injected ’53 Mercury flathead full of Ross pistons, Eagle rods, and an Isky bumpstick. The heads are Offenhauser aluminum pieces, and besides spending hours lettering and customizing those, the team also created an extended oil pan that goes back to the bellhousing and Bowler six-speed.

When we were in the car, the odometer read 36 miles, all of them from going on and off a trailer. The first few minutes of our ride were part of a low-speed shakedown, listening for any clunks or rattles that shouldn’t be there. Once he was sure the bolts were all tight, Andy goosed the throttle, and the car jumped forward with a non-stock snarl. It’s odd to ride a non-stock snarl. It’s odd to ride in a vehicle this finely finished, a bit like rolling in a jewelry box, only instead of the twirling ballerina in the center, there’s a supercharged V8.

What an awesome car! Nice to see it out there on the road being enjoyed, hot rods were meant to drive!

The ride was stable, fairly firm but not uncomfortable. We wouldn’t have any problem cruising like this across the country. Of course, like any new drive, there were some unexpected obstacles. The power windows, controlled by smooth frenched-in buttons behind the art deco–styled shifter, kept rolling themselves down. Andy wondered if it was an electrical gremlin, until he realized that he brushes the controls every time he drops his hand after a shift. “Guess that’s right where I’d normally rest my hand,” he says. “These are things you don’t realize during a build. I won’t do it that way again.”

We made circles through the town of Bennington, finally making a triumphant arrival at Cubby’s Gas Stop, where a local car cruise was in full swing. As expected, the Ridler car turned heads immediately, and we had barely coasted in before the car was completely surrounded. The Ridler may be CAL Creations first official award, but we think this hometown drive was the car’s first real win.

The Ridler Award

The year 2014 marks the 50 anniversary of the Ridler Award, a best-in-show honor named after Don Ridler, an early promoter of the Autorama. The Ridler Award is given each year at the Detroit Autorama to the vehicle that exemplifies creativity, engineering, and workmanship. There are eight finalists, known as the “Great 8” from which the Ridler Winner is selected. Last year’s Ridler Award went to Dwayne Peace of Tyler, Texas, and his ’55 Ford Thunderbird. Beyond the recognition this title brings, the winner receives $10,000, a jacket, and a 1⁄3-scale trophy of the Ridler Award to keep.

Dow 7 Coating

Dow 7 is a chemical conversion coating for magnesium (MilSpec: M-3171) that creates a brassy-brown finish that was made popular by the aerospace industry and hot rodders in the ’60s. This finish offers only fair corrosion resistance and was intended to be an excellent base finish for paint. Originally, it was desirable because it caused no appreciable dimensional change of the part being coated, but our industry holds Dow 7 in high regard because of its legendary tone.

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Dow 7 is still in use in the aerospace industry, but the Dow 17 (magnesium anodizing) process has superseded it in many modern applications. Dow 17 gives magnesium a more greenish color than Dow 7, but the two look similar enough that the aerospace industry uses Dow 7 to refinish parts originally processed with the Dow 17 coating. Those of you looking for an authentic Dow 7 coating that will hold up to street use should consider having the finished product clear powdercoated after the Dow 7 treatment.

PTI Industries (PTIindustries.com) in Enfield, Connecticut, offers Dow 7 and Dow 17 processes -- and is one of the few aerospace contractors we found willing to do, and capable of doing, wheels.

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Factoid

Only one other ’40 Ford has ever won the Ridler Award since its introduction in 1964. That was back in the ’90s, when Dave Stitzer’s red ’40 built by Don Pilkenton took the title in 1993.

Readers Rank It

Is this car firing on all eight? Here’s the score from a poll of HOT ROD readers, 1 is the worst score, 8 is the best.

Overall 7.5
Stance 7.5
Engine 7.5
Exterior 7.5
Interior 7.5

Why Begin With a ’40?

Ford found a balance with integrating the grille and fenders into the body mass by ’40. With the first Ford hydraulic brakes in 1939, combined with the column shift and sealed-beam headlights in 1940, this was a modern car in every way. For hot rodders, the striking styling combined with the improved 24-stud flathead made this a favorite.

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Professional Opinion
Josh Bulloch owns True Metal Shaping in Cedar City, Utah. His shop specializes in metal fabrication for high-end hot rod shops and race cars. We asked him what he thought of Andy’s work on the Ridler Ford:

“One of the things that stuck out to me was that he made drastic changes, but they seem subtle. The only way to do that is to maintain the highlight lines, which are the reflections of light in the body panel. It’s very hard to make changes in metal that don’t cause those reflections to get wider or narrower as you move your eye down the car. I’m impressed with the attention to detail in the build, the punched holes and flanged panels, even in the inner panels. All the gaps are good. That takes time; it has to be checked and rechecked in every stage. It’s just a beautiful job.”